Friday, September 9, 2011

A Great Year, Then It All Changed

Good Morning, Marzullo Here! The start of 2001 was a huge year for me I had just made the move to Youngstown, Ohio where my television weather career kicked into high gear. I was hired as the weekday morning and noon meteorologist at the NBC station and I actually was not done with college at that point. So not only was I working a full time job in television news but I still had a year and half of college left so I was attending classes in the afternoon and evening. I was able to not only cover the weather but also co-host with two of my dear friends, we had a lot of fun. In television news it is all about the ratings and by the start of the summer my co-workers and I had moved the ratings for our morning news to the number one spot in the city. I was on top of the world enjoying life with family and friends who lived close by in Cleveland. I remember in June that year I bought my first brand new car, I also was kinda of a odd ball, I got personalized plates.... ( 4CASTER ) Please make fun of me later! I took a road trip to Philadelphia, my co-anchor got married in July, and in late August my co-anchors and I were preparing to leave for Orlando where we were going to broadcast LIVE from the a new Disney Cruise Ship. Everything I had dreamed and hope for was coming true and then September 11th happened, and life was put in perspective.

I remember it like it was yesterday I was standing in our control room placing our morning crews breakfast order to the cafe down the street. This was our morning ritual before our last news cut-in of the morning we would place our breakfast call at about 8:50am. I remember hearing Matt Lauer on the Today Show, say " we have some breaking news we will get to after the break. " The crew in the control room kinda of laughed because who says we have breaking news but first these commercials, of course none of us knew what was about to happen. When they came back from break and the first shot we saw was the first tower on fire we still did not realize the magnitude of what had happened, in fact I remember I actually started walking down the stairs to get everyone breakfast. I was a few steps away from the newsroom door when I stopped to check the coverage on the television at the assignment desk, it was that moment when the second plane hit and life was changed forever. The entire day and weeks to come you watched and prayed for those lives lost and the people they left behind. Your heart broke and eyes teared up as the buildings came down and you were on edge as phone lines were down trying to get in touch with love ones, just to hear a soothing voice on the other line. I remember a few days later I was doing the weather from a local fire house when the cheif shouted out the window " They found another survivor " I was on the air live at the time and as I said those words to our viewers we knew there was hope to find more. September 11th was a day that changed all of our lives and the way we walk through life. The symbolic meaning of that day and memory I have is that breakfast was never picked up, a sign of how time froze and we as Americans stopped to comprehend what was happening to the greatest country in the world. However, you choose to remember this weekend, just never forget.